Run and Hide
by IConfuzzleMyself
Summary: Yuri has been running and hiding for most of her life, but when she meets a certain dog-boy, will she choose to stand and face the past that has been haunting her? Or run and hide again? Rated T cos I wasn't sure. Light swearing. Reviewing Appreciated :


_First Story! Reviews appreciated, but not neccesary._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto, I only own my OC Yuri Arimane_

Yuri loved the sound of the Konoha markets in summer. Everyone just sounded so…happy! _'So unlike how I used to live... No! I promised myself when I came here that I would forget everything that has happened.' _Yuri thought, shaking her head to get rid of the dark thoughts. Calling to her dog, Makota, so that she knew to follow her, Yuri went to walk around the corner when a boy with a dog on his head ran straight into her! "…OW!" Yuri gasped, winded, from the ground.  
>"Oh shit, are you okay?" the boy asked remorsefully. <em>'Well so he should!' <em>Yuri thought, glowering.  
>"Oh no, I'm fine. I just got knocked to the ground by an idiot with a dog on his head is all." Yuri said in a sarcastic tone, taking his offered hand to get up off the ground. Now that Yuri was standing up she was able to get a good look at him. He was wearing a big grey jacket with khaki shorts and sandals. He had a nice face, with brown eyes that held <em>a lot<em> of laughter but were serious at the same time, brown hair that stuck up all over his head; genuinely messy not a carefully manicured messy. Down his cheeks he had painted red fangs.  
>"No need to be sarcastic, I'm Kiba Inuzuka by the way, and this is Akamaru." He said gesturing to the dog that was now hanging over his shoulder.<br>"OH! You're an Inuzuka! That would explain why you had a dog on your head and the paint. My name's Yuri Arimane," Yuri said, thinking to herself, '_Well it does make sense. The Inuzuka and Arimane clan both use dogs in their jutsu, and the Inuzuka paint their faces. Wait… where did _my_ dog go?' _As though the thought had occurred to him too, Kiba said, "If you're an Arimane, what are you doing in Konoha? I thought the Arimane lived in the stone village? And where's your dog?"  
>"Oh, my family moved here from the stone village a few weeks ago. As for where my dog is, that is a <em>very <em>good question…if only I knew the answer to it." Narrowing her eyes at Kiba's answering chuckle, Yuri continued, "I told her to follow me, so I don't know. Maybe she didn't hear me or maybe she found something worth investigating…" her sentence trailing off into nothing, Yuri started to look around.  
>"Umm…what does this dog of yours look like?" Kiba asked.<br>Narrowing her eyes even further at the barely restrained laughter in his voice Yuri answered, "_Makota_ has grey fur with black paws and white tips on her ears." It seemed that Kiba couldn't hold his laughter in much longer because he pointed towards a stall near the edge of the market and clapped the other hand over his mouth. Throwing a worried glance at Kiba's rapidly purpling face; Yuri took a closer look underneath the stall and saw a small grey figure chewing on something. Using her wolf like sight she could see that the figure was indeed Makota, chewing on what looked like a dead rat.

Glaring at Kiba who was now rolling on the ground laughing his head off, Yuri stalked over to Makota. Looking up from her meal, Makota cocked her head in an avian way with a bark and looked at her. "Don't worry about what took me so long, why are you here eating a rat instead of over there with that idiot and me?" Yuri admonished, answering Makota's bark. Ducking her head, Makota stood up and trotted over to Yuri, looking up at her with big brown eyes. Yuri could never stay mad at Makota long when she looked at her like that (or any way, to be perfectly honest), so she just motioned for her to follow her with a smile. Perking up immediately, Makota started to trot over to where Kiba was leaning on a building, still trying to catch his breath. Since he had been so rude (to be fair he hadn't been that rude, but Yuri was still simmering about him finding Makota and not her), Yuri threw her head back and marched right past him. Catching her hand, Kiba said, "Look, I'm sorry that I laughed so much, please don't go." His eyes were so big and serious that Yuri just couldn't bring herself to leave. Sighing and trying not to crack a smile, Yuri said, "You look, I know that our clans are supposed to be dog-like, but there's no reason to beg." Smiling, Kiba let go of her hand, somewhat reluctantly, and directed his attention to Makota who was lying down in the shade next to them. "So this is the legendary Makota, eh?" he said, "She could use a bit more obedience training if you ask me."

"Well, I didn't ask you now did I?" Yuri asked, reverting back to her dark mood.  
>Looking a bit nervous as he saw Yuri's glowering expression, Kiba said, "Well, just to change the subject, you said that you moved here with your family a few weeks ago, how come I haven't seen any of them around?"<br>Sighing because she had been hoping to avoid that question, Yuri said, "Yeah, you have, just a few moments ago." Sighing again at his confused expression, Yuri went on, "It was nine years ago, I was five and my parents were off on a mission. The day they were supposed to be back came and went. I sat in the doorway for two days and nights with Makota sitting right beside me, never moving, but they never came back. On the third day, the woman that managed the local orphanage came by to tell me that my parents had been found dead in the forest. Well, my dad was dead, but my mum was still able to tell them that they had a child waiting for them at home, and to tell them to take care of me.

The only problem was that the orphanage didn't allow dogs inside (I know it's a stupid rule) so Makota would've had to live outside, and there was no way I was going to let that happen. So me and Makota ran away. We moved from town to town and picked up a few moves along the way. That's how we got here, we wanted to be ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, and knew it wouldn't be easy, so we spent most of our lives training in different styles of jutsu and combat. So, in reality, Makota is all the family I have left, that's what I meant when I said you had already seen my family around." Yuri concluded sadly. She hadn't told anyone what had happened since the second last village she had been in, which was about five years ago. She also had no idea why she was spilling her guts out to some guy she had just met on the street, but she wasn't going to question that right now.  
>"Wow… so you're an orphan?" Kiba asked, looking shocked.<br>It was a rhetorical question, but Yuri answered anyway, "Yep, for most of my life."  
>"Wow," He said again, "At least you knew your parents, I have a friend called Naruto Uzumaki, he was abandoned as soon as he was born. He never knew his parents."<br>"I guess I'm lucky in that way, at least I knew my parents that long." Yuri said, thinking about how it would feel to never have known her parents.

By now they had started to walk to a park bench; with Makota and Akamaru trailing behind them, sniffing each other; and were sitting down. Leaning back and looking up at the sky, Yuri couldn't help but wonder what her life would have been like without Makota to help her along, and keep her going, no matter how bad it seemed. Looking at the angle of the sun and shadows, Yuri realised that she had to start heading home; otherwise she wouldn't be able to get some food for dinner.

But at that moment, she couldn't bring herself to care.


End file.
